These factors have values which are added up to give a Base Bravery value. This tells you how much your character can do and how likely they are to do them successfully.

For example:

Kev on the right is an adult (5) of average strength (+1) he looks ex-military so he's probably pretty fit and fast moving (+2) he has 1 pistol (+1) and no armour (0)

this gives him a Base Bravery of 9, which is a very healthy rating, a 75% chance of passing any unmodified bravery tests.

Kitty on the left is either a Teen or a young adult, either way Teen seems the most fitting description (4) she is of average strength (+1) and average speed (+1) 2 pistols give her (+2) and no armour (0)

Giving her a Base Bravery of 8

The Turn Phase

The system is a slightly modified "I go, You go" which goes more like

"I go, my zombies chase me, You go, your zombies chase you"

I Go

The first thing you must do is choose a character and work out if they can see any zombies, if they can, they must immediately test for Bravery (working title "Startling Test")
You must roll under their unmodified Base Bravery. If passed they keep a Turn Bravery equal to their Base bravery. If failed they have a Turn Bravery equal to their Base Bravery - 1D6

Turn Bravery Points

Turn Bravery essentially tells you how much your character can do this turn, think of them as "action points" you spend them performing actions, and can save them to react to zombie actions. This is kept track of by leaving 2 D6 on your character's stat card, displaying the unspent points.

these can be performed in any order and may be repeated (apart from shuffling which may only be performed at the end of the turn)

For example:

Kev has passed his Startling Test giving him his full 9 Turn Bravery points to spend this turn. he spends 2 points moving, 2 points attacking, then a further 1 point moving before spending his last 4 points attacking.

Moving

Movement costs you 1 Turn Bravery point per 3" of movement. Movement is performed by pivoting first, then moving in a straight line up to 3". So if you want to move 6" and then spin around, you will have to: pivot if necessary, move 3", pivot if necessary, move 3", then pivot - costing 3 Turn Bravery points due to that last pivot. This mechanic is to make players think about movement, rather than just running and blindly firing behind them, they may need to conserve points to make more attacks etc.

There are maximum movements imposed depending on their fitness.

Slow characters may only spend 2 points on movement, Average may spend 3 points, and Fast may spend 4 points moving.

All difficult terrain (Forest areas, steps, ladders etc) cause movement to half to just 1.5" per point, remember each point of movement is treated indipendantly of other movement points, so you may move 3" up to the forest, then spend the next 2 points moving at 1.5" through it for example.

Attacking

Attacking is divided into 2 types; Shooting and Combat

Attacking of either sort costs 2 Turn Bravery points per attack
The character may only use 1 weapon for each Turn Bravery point spent attacking, but may switch weapons for each point, or re-use the same weapon again if able.

Line of sight

Characters can see 180degrees to the front, Zombies can only see up to 12"

Shooting

Shooting attacks are performed when a character uses a ranged weapon.

Ranged weapons have 3 stats; Effective Range (normally given as a minimum and maximum measurement - in the case of pistols just a maximum is given), and a Strength value.

Firstly your character must test to hit the zombie, this is done by measuring the distance from the character to the zombie, and seeing if it is within the effective range of the weapon.

If the target is within the effective range, add (+2) to the characters Age value. if the target is within 6" outside of the effective range (+1) instead, 6" beyond that add nothing to the Age value, outside of this limit halve the Age value (rounding up) and add nothing (this allows those all important "lucky shots" to be possible).

Aiming
Aiming costs 2 points, but gives you a +1 modifier to your To Hit value

Hitting and Missing

In ZOMG, stray bullets can cause more harm than good, or wound nearby zombies you weren't even aiming at. If you roll a successful hit, proceed to wound the target.

if however you fail to hit, roll a D6. on a 1, 2 or 3 the bullet goes left, on a 4, 5 or 6 the bullet goes right. Place the miss template on the apropriate side of the model (for our games we placed the 40k flamer template to one side of the model about halfway, with the pointy end pointing towards the shooting character)

the closest model (to the shooter) under this template is now subject to a shooting attack (rolling to hit, then wound) if this target is missed, then the attack fails completely (the template is not used twice for the same bullet)

To Wound (shooting)

Firstly, the target suffers an instant kickback, this is represented by moving the zombie directly away from the shooter a number of inches equal to half the weapons strength. the zombie stops if they come into contact with some scenery, but can collect other models, moving them togther if they come into contact.

You need to roll under the weapon's Strength value to wound a zombie, if passed, the zombie is de-activated and placed facing away from the shooter. To kill the zombie outright, you need to roll under half of the weapons strength, remove the zombie model.

For Example:

Kitty lets rip with her two strength 8 pistols, her first attack targets an oncoming zombie leading a small horde. the zombie is within her pistols Effective range of 0" - 9", so she needs to roll under (Age 4, +2 for range = 6) to hit. She passes. The zombie is moved backwards 4", collecting two following zombies and moving them backwards. She also passes the Wound test with flying colours, rolling 4 which is half of the weapons strength, killing it outright.

This represents a player choosing the best shot, as even if she had missed, there was a second chance for the bullet to hit a nearby following zombie.

Combat

Combat weapons have 3 stats, Range (normally between Base to base and up to 3"), Ease of use, and a Strength modifier. They are also very likely to have special rules attached, due to the wide variety of combat weapons.

Once a character is within the range of his combat weapon, he may may make an attack with it.

Combat attacks do not need to test to hit zombies, they just need to test to see if they have any affect...

to work out the strength of the combat attack, Add the character's Age and Strength value, along with the weapon's strength modifier.

as with shooting, you need to roll under the strength to wound, if successful perform a knockback on the zombie (half the strength in inches directly backwards), de-activate the zombie and turn it to face away from the attacking character.

if you rolled under half the strength, the zombie is killed outright - after the effects of knockback have been applied.

Zombies

Zombies are shadows of their former humanity, half blind, driven by hunger, with a basicbasically autonomous. They are generated by dividing the board into 2'x2' squares, marking the centre of these squares, and rolling 1D6 for each of these centre marks. this tells you how many zombies to place in each segment. Place each zombie 2D6" in the direction of a scatter dice (using the little arrow on the "hit" sides) from their corresponding segment centre facing in the same direction as the scatter dice.

for more intense games you could roll a D6 per 1' square instead

Zombie Activation

Zombies start the game unactivated. When a zombie is unactivated it wanders 1D6 in the direction of a scatter dice.

Activation
Zombies are activated once they either see a non zombie character (remember they can only see up to 12") or are alerted by noise.

When a zombie is activated, they instantly spin to face what has activated them,

I havent quite worked out how multiple activations will work, (does the zombie blindly follow the last person to make a noise? or go after the closest person they can see.

unactivated zombies are moved after each player has either finished their turn (apart from characters which may have performed Pause actions)

Some Thoughts
The game seems complicated on paper, but visually it is extremely simple, your stat card will show you at a glance what you need to roll to do anything, which speeds the game up massively - a key aspect of this game needs to be speed of play, to allow large scale movements to occur (like searching a row of houses or clearing a shopping mall.

and an assortment of pictures below show our playtest session.

Weapon Effective Ranges, Paul and i discuss the way SMG's would differ to pistols etc

A few rough game turns provide us with many giggles, for example our special rule for the cricket bat meaning it sends zombies hurtling through the air
you can see the use of colour coded counters to represent who which players characters the zombies are following

my character, Kev, hides in the window of a building, but the constant gunfire only seems to draw in more zombies....

things get interesting as zombies close in, the ease of character death definately adds tension to the game.

I'm looking forward to doing some more playtesting, the game needs more character (much more), this could be achieved by the special rules I intend to add, allowing you to spice up your characters in a great many ways.

possibly the gaming system needs to be more complex to allow for such special rules to have any in game effect.

Another point of interest to address in the rules is the objectives

my original sketchy plans basically involved each player trying to build up a warband by searching houses, and escaping with them from a designated point. the players would then score points for their warbands collective abilities.

Paul however suggested a much better idea, why not score points by doing cool movie-esque things in the game, killing zombies in inventive ways. This adds a bit of flair to the game, but does suggest I need a much more detailed combat and shooting system to allow for more inventive kills. A task I am only too ready to get involved with.

Cheers for reading guys, and any and all comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Some new additions to the rag tag band of survivors building up in Tombsville

I do enjoy these little mini projects, the individuality of the characters bring up new challenges with each mini, for this guy, i wanted a kind of "ex-special forces" look, wearing a practical hoody and combats.

And to add a little spice, I thought I'd give him a tribal tattoo across his face, to beef him up a bit.

Thursday, 16 June 2011

To prove this blog is still in progress, slowly, I've got some pics of some new additions, one looks strangely familar...

First up, Generic Zombie #2

And this little chap...

Parker, from Hasslefree, I couldnt resist giving him an orange coat.

one of my favourites.

I've made some real progress with some other characters, and the rules are starting to stitch together. i'm just trying to get the "feel" of the rules to sit right. they need to be fun and fast, but detailed enough to make this game interesting. the detail is easy, making it easy to remember and swift to play is the difficult bit!

more updates to follow soon (and not in 6 months like this last update haha!)

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

I've been uncharacteristically busy the past few weeks so have got next to nothing done recently, but with my hasslefree stuff and ironhalo bases arriving, i did manage to get them glued together, and found a break in the constant raining to get them sprayed.

with a trip to dublin last weekend I didnt have a chance to paint anything, but took the opportunity last night to finish up one model I've been itching to do.

I Just couldn't wait to paint up a hazmat guy, so with my little bit of spare time I quickly got this guy painted almost as a tester.

choosing the colour scheme was difficult, as I was unsure of white, yellow or black suits (black is always the baddy goons in zombie movies, yellow is the classic movie hazmats, but white is the realistic one)

so I went with white, almost as a challenge to myself to paint a nice looking white character (which Ray's white business shirt was also a pre-cursor to)

I went for the orange gloves and kneepads to bring some colour to them, and a gold visor to cement the "facelessness" of the goons.

you can even see I've managed to add the pointer on the oxygen gauge

hopefully I shall get much more done this weekend, as I am now skint from dublin.

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

So this project hasnt had the best start, like my old Rover sat on the driveway it splutters and coughs but at this moment has been sat on the driveway for quite a few months now.

BUT NO MORE!

I have just taken delivery of even more hasslefree miniatures!

so lets get the whip cracking!

I've been writing a whole new ruleset for the past few weeks. i would love some opinions on what i have so far.

Basic game overview:

quick uncomplicated system of rules

Dice rolling, quite often using the age old system of requiring to roll under a number with 2D6

Characters

Any miniatures can be used thanks to a simple stats system which simply adds up a "Bravery Value" based on age, any armour (helmets etc) and what weapons they are carrying.

this single number represents how brave the character is - dictating how far they can move, how many times they can shoot, and how likely they are to be successful in performing actions.

special rules are given to the characters by simply looking at what the character is (cop, soldier, lazy, athlete, angry, scared, etc)

Zombies

the zombies will by automated by random dice rolling, they will have varying degrees of intelligence and will generally be attracted to the characters through sight and noise!

zombies can be killed, by sheer brutal force or pure luck, generally though, a shooting or combat attack against a zombie will simply send them stumbling backwards, this gives your character vital time to run away until the zombie closes in, encouraging your own characters to interact, working together, and also gives you a gameplay mechanic to "pinball" zombies towards enemy teams.

Gameplay

Movement is simple, but as soon as your character even glimpses a zombie they test for bravery. failing this may leave them slightly incapacitated (stunned) or may make them run for their lives.

Shooting takes up movement, depending on the difficulty of use (pistols easy, sniper rifle not so), the weapons are more effective at their natural range, pistols up close, rifles further away, and sniper rifles and rocket launchers are great at long distance, but unweildy closer up. weapons also have a stopping power, a representation of how hard they "hit" the zombies, knocking them backwards.

Combat is all about how suited to combat your weapons are, there are alternate options of course (fists, a hastily grabbed rock) but these are generally non-lethal to zombies. a well placed baseball bat to the head will send a zombie stumbling back, whereas a sniper rifle placed under the chin will send a zombies head flying into the stratosphere, but getting it there is obviously much more difficult.

Expansion packsI have no plans to incorperate human on human combat in this iteration of the game, it will be assumed all humans want to work together.however I will be including "extensions" to the rulebook, detailing further game elements such as vehicles, special rules, special characters, settings and other monsters.

As I have just recieved the hazmat team from hasslefree, i will definately be writing up a military expansion, to allow evil corporation goons to run amok in the Zomg! world.

Well thats a basic summary, please do comment and suggest some ideas, I'm after a nice simple game system thats friendly, fun, and most importantly, so open ended that you can tailor it to nearly any small team based gaming.

hopefully I can get a rough draft of the rulebook hosted online at some point (any pointers?)